Dramatis Personae
Persons featuring prominently in the Aldergate Papers: * [[Adrian Ward|'Adrian Ward']] - Our beloved hero. * [[Samantha Brayden|'Samantha "Sammie" Brayden']] - Undeniably brilliant, deservedly notorious, unfortunately deceased. An inspiration and a nuisance to our beloved hero since their teenage years at Aldergate, Sammie continues to inspire and annoy from beyond the grave. Well, not the grave as such; they've only found her legs so far, and the police still have those. Anyhow, she's still a thorn in the flesh and a pain in the neck, and our hero hasn't even properly managed to mourn her yet. * [[Bathsheba ffoulkes|'Bathsheba "Baz" ffoulkes']] - Another childhood pal of our beloved hero, Baz's early genius for organization blossomed within the ancient walls of Aldergate University, and now she more or less runs the place. An unfailingly loyal friend, an incurable nosy parker, and a pathologically efficient bureaucrat. * Dr. Lockwood "Prof K" Kilbury - The last survivor of an ancient race of infinitely wise, infinitely sarcastic beings. A professor of Philosophy, his life's work centers around the "Ultima Ratio " - the proposition that all true knowledge can in theory be derived logically from a single perfectly true statement. Kilbury was our beloved hero's favorite professor back in the salad days, and he's just the same now as he was then. Well, perhaps he's changed a bit. But he's still fantastic. * CC Eric Standish - Chief Constable of the Aldergate University Constabulary. Tall, lean chap, never finishes his sentences. Disconcertingly tidy. Poor fellow's in the first flush of early-onset Parkinson's disease, but he's bearing up quit well all things considered. A nice fellow, all in all. He does seem a bit too intelligent for a job that ought to mainly involve telling disorderly students to go home and sleep it off, but of course Sammie's murder seems to be offering a bit more of a challenge... * Sir Reggie - The 50th Vice-Chancellor, our beloved hero's illustrious predecessor. For over thirty years this magnificent old rip nurtured and protected the University's scholars, and did so at the expense of anyone or anything not part of the University. For Aldergate's sake he bullied, bribed, romanced and robbed, and the world loved him for it. When he disappeared in the South Seas he left behind a library full of contraband souvenirs and a pair of prodigious shoes for our beloved hero to fill. Persons featuring occasionally in the Aldergate Papers: * Kirk Bryce - An utterly awful human being. Heads up Cryptech, formerly part of the Ward Holdings corporate family; since our hero spun him off he's been disgracefully successful, and now he goes about giving TED talks and electrifying villages and skin-diving with endangered sea urchins or whatever. Wears a white vegan leather cowboy hat and writes articles about ethically sustainable technoculture. Our beloved hero once shared a hotel suite with him during an industry summit spent hiding in the bar and researching local laws about justifiable homicide. * Nicole "Bells" Bellamy - Of the Westchester Bellamys. The best and most durable friend our beloved hero made after setting up shop in Manhattan; she taught him how to dress, introduced him to the right people, and instructed him in the subtle art of balancing ironclad social respectability with utter depravity. Likes cats, human drama, and novel experiences. * Tom "the Usurper" Cavender - The new Managing Executive of Ward Holdings. Or whatever it is they're going to call it now. A capable executive and a savvy investor, Tom will doubtless do a magnificent job of looking after the old firm, and our beloved hero will never forgive them for it. * John "Black Jack" Holborn - A Bastard among Bastards. Technically a hereditary, but as the founding cut-throat of ULTI-RAT he'd doubtless have been brought in regardless. Apparently he's a bit of a hermit these days, which is just as well, because it seems that he is also a Regent of Aldergate. That could make for an awkward bit of University politics; out of all the Heres Mundi he's got most reason to want our beloved hero's guts for garters, and as the sitting ManOc he's quite likely to get them. * Yannick "Neek" Oladipo - Ahhh ... Neek. Wonderfully good, wonderfully kind, wonderfully thoughtful, possibly the most exceptional pure scientist our beloved hero has ever met. Also, she is nice to look at. As in, she's one of those people who can throw the gravitational equilibrium of a room off kilter by pushing her hair back and laughing. Can't stand to be around people since the accident that resulted in Alastair's death; currently haunting the mountains of Tajikistan. Something to do with geophysics. She exchanges emails with our beloved hero every few months, but their paths haven't crossed in the last fifteen years * [[Alastair|'Alastair']] - Our beloved hero is shocked to realize that he doesn't actually know what Alastair's last name was. Anyhow, he was the youngest of the BOWfAX crew, and he may have had the most exceptional analytical brain of the modern era. He was a good friend, and would probably have become one of the most impactful and important difference engineers in human history. He died in the Hobson Mews fire at the age of fifteen.